Why sustainability projects are no longer optional

In 2022, it is no secret anymore that humanity has failed at sustainability.

Listening to the voices of the experts in the field, people that have dedicated their lives to studying nature and climate change, such as Sir David Attenborough, many educators get inspired to do something meaningful for the planet.

This was the case of Koen Timmers, an educator from Belgium who founded the Climate Action Project in 2017. I was one of the attendees of the T4 Conference in May 2020; I heard Koen speak and I decided to join the project as well.

We all become educators with the hope that we will change the world for the better. This is what this project is all about!

The project aims to embed climate education into the curriculum across all subjects, so that any teacher and student can be part of it, changing attitudes and behaviours and challenging students to take action locally and globally.

I started promoting the project at our induction sessions in August, and then several other colleagues in primary and secondary schools joined it. This allowed me to create a team of five English teachers who translated the project curriculum into Romanian so that teachers from Moldova and Romania who do not teach or speak English could join the project as well.

We carried out classroom activities but also got classes together to have video conferences with students in Romania and other countries. After doing research into the effect of climate change at local and national level, students discussed their findings and started thinking collaboratively about possible solutions.

Next, we planted trees in the school yard. This was a powerful message to the whole community, but it also sparked discussions among students, thinking critically about their own behaviour.

Then, at the end of the project, I was selected to speak live together with some students at the final conference on Climate Action Day. This was one of the most unforgettable moments for my students, and it made them even more motivated to fight climate change. They felt empowered and responsible for what they do as citizens of the planet.

Sustainability is too important a topic: it can’t be done only in one classroom!

As the head of global education at Heritage International School, I am responsible for the direction we take in global education and the projects that are implemented at our school. That’s why I decided it should be a whole-school approach – to make it successful and to see visible changes in our community behaviour.

I promoted the project nationally, being the country ambassador for the project. I wrote articles in newspapers, gave interviews for TV channels and radio programmes, liaised with the Ministry of Education to get official support and recognition. In the first year, 120 educators around Moldova embarked on the project journey in autumn 2020, together with their students. In year 2, around 300 educators from Moldova joined this global movement to teach climate education and to involve students in problem solving and decision making.

The Climate Action Project has been the catalyst for change at Heritage. Besides this six-week project, we embraced many eTwinning projects on climate change as well, as eTwinning Europe announced its 2020 annual theme to be the climate change and environmental challenges in education.

We are also running a successful Student Council at my school, both for primary and secondary school students, and we placed sustainability at its core as well. Our students started organising school events, such as community challenges, in which they challenge each other to use reusable bottles instead of plastic ones (we banned plastic cups at school long ago).

They also started creating decorations for various events only from recycled materials, with a message for the entire community (teachers, students and parents) to consume less and recycle more. They organise school assemblies where they speak about sustainability and why it is so important.

Last year, I had our student council join the Global School Alliance Student Council. The school representatives participate in meetings and, in the second semester, they voted and chose a project to be run across all participating schools. It was on plastic waste.

My students brought many wonderful initiatives into the school. For example, our school signed a contract with a recycling company for sorting garbage and recycling plastic. We also organised visits to the recycling plant in Chisinau. This had a big impact on our students, inspiring them to use less plastic.

Another initiative launched by a student council member started a collaboration with a paper recycling company: we scatter their paper collection bins around the school and then return them when full.

Since the 2020 lockdown, we have been using digital platforms in teaching more. As the online learning coordinator, I keep reminding teachers to use less paper – only for tests or other similar tasks – and to go digital instead for the benefit of the forests and the planet. We post all our materials in our virtual classrooms, instead of spreading worksheets. Who would go back to pre-Covid times in their teaching? Nobody.

And we have yet more plans for sustainability in our school: we are planning to join the Climate Action Schools paid programme. This is a whole-school, year-long programme that includes all instructional resources and materials, professional development, school partnerships, and marketing materials. I am very much looking forward to embracing it all!

In conclusion, we no longer have the luxury of avoiding this topic. Time is up and there must be a general change in behaviour, everywhere in the world, to stop climate change. Our students are fighting for this change, and we are responsible for enabling them to keep fighting by giving them these opportunities to learn and act.

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Do you run sustainability projects at your school? Would you like to share your experience, or do you have a question for Tatiana? Register for your free profile and leave a comment below!

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